NRL Fights || Modern Day vs Old Days

A shame there's no video of Bob Cooper's fight. in 82 and left him with a 15 month suspension.

Cooper with Roy Masters

"three Illawarra Steelers prone on the turf after the wild exchange, one with a broken jaw, another with a smashed nose and cheekbone, and a third heavily concussed."

We take a tap and [hooker] Arthur Mountier gives it to Max," said Cooper, providing his own commentary of the Magpies-Steelers match, then only 90 seconds old.

"Max" was second-rower Paul Merlo, so named because he resembled the character in Mad Max.

"[Greg] Cook [Steelers prop] goes at Max with his right elbow cocked and I race in, bringing my knee up," he continued. "No punches are thrown yet, but there are plenty of arms swinging around."

The camera inexplicably swings away from the action to show players in front of the ball. "Everyone is looking back,' said Cooper, pointing to the screen where players were staring at action off camera. The camera returns to the brawl, now involving about five players.

"Cook throws the first blow - a right hand. He belted me first off. It was a good one." Cooper watches as he spins out of the melee, a long stick propelled by a churning tyre. Cook's head then disappeared momentarily in the thicket of arms, only to emerge level with the waists of the others.

"I pop out of the action and then I see Cook's head just sitting there. I go whack and hit Cook's head. Then I saw [Lee] Pomfret and hit him."

The tape showed Pomfret, a slight winger who had come in from the blindside, standing on the edge of the melee, meekly attempting to separate players. Cooper's swinging right fist sledgehammered Pomfret's face.

At this point, Cooper turned the machine off and asked my opinion. I had brought Cooper into first grade at Wests and was coaching St George on the day of the incident, meaning we had never discussed his suspension.

"You were entitled to have a go at Cook, but you should never have gone near Pomfret," I told him. Cooper dropped his head in a gesture of embarrassment and agreement.

"Spot on," he said, according me the same authority that existed nearly 30 years earlier. It was as if the years had spooled back to 1977 with the same speed the cassette had rewound, preserving the coach/player roles. Relationships, forged in the heat of competition, tend to endure, provided the input of honesty has been equal on both sides.

"Cook deserved what he got, but it was a cheap shot to hit Pomfret," he conceded. "I knew I was in trouble. I walked away. I only threw two punches. Still, they were good punches." But didn't he hit a third player? "This is the first time I have ever heard of another player," Cooper said. "I shit myself as soon as I hit Pomfret. I walked away after I hit him. I knew I had hurt him."

So we played the tape again, taking it past the Pomfret hit, and watched as the melee, which now involved all but three players, began to resemble a windmill at high speed.

"Yeah, I could have hit that bloke there," Cooper said, standing up to indicate a player on the screen, Scott Greenland, who was wearing a scarlet jersey with No.9 on his back. "This is the first time I ever knew I hit a third one," he added, genuinely surprised.

Referee Chris Ward sent off both Cooper and Cook, pointing down at Cook lying sprawled on the turf with a bloodied nose and drooping jaw. Wests received a penalty from the incident because, as a touch judge said in evidence, Cook's cocked elbow ignited the conflagration. However, Cooper was "third man in", meaning he joined the initial dispute between Merlo and Cook, a no-no at the time.